I finished Blue Ocean Strategy last weekend, but I didn’t get a chance to post my notes or thoughts about it.
For the most part, I think that the high level concept expressed in this book is obvious to most entrepreneurs or SMEs. This is because the value proposition for many emerging businesses are based on value innovation. There are few businesses, apart from maybe local restaurants and service establishments, that typically enter the “red ocean” fray of competition, when they don’t need to.
Takeaways:
* I underestimated how useful strategy canvases can be. The visual representation of a business’s key factors is a perfect way to communicate and gain buy in amongst the “ranks”.
* “Price minus costing” is superior to “Cost plus pricing”, which makes sense, but I don’t think many businesses follow. This extends from the buyer utility test. makes so much sense. The examples– Philips CD-i failure, and others, serve to show how starting from buyer utility and moving through price, cost, and finally adoption leads to narrowing down a commercially viable blue ocean idea.
* Focus on the consumer, not on the technology. Obvious, but a good reminder. Examples given– lack of US consumer adoption in phone/wireless services as compared to Japan/European markets.
* Part 3: Execution of BOS is a great section– a lot of the good actionable material of this book is in this section. It discusses (with case studies) how to get past the 4 main organizational hurdles preventing BOS concept adoption: Cognitive, Political, Resource, and Motivational.
* Other interesting stuff to note: the 3 tiers of noncustomers and how to tap them, the 3 “E” principles, Engagement, Explanation, and Clarity of Expectation; 6 paths to reconstruct market boundaries.
What I think is great about this book is that the authors do discuss practical details (in the form of case studies). I would most definitely recommend this book to a design planner or entrepreneur. You could probably skip the first few chapters and focus on execution, if you understand the need for a “Blue Ocean Strategy”.
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